Saunders, Julia, Joshua and three other Brotherhood members stayed in that lab for the best part of three days. Barely a word was spoken, and barely an eyeball blinked. It was amazing the concentration levels a potential cure to a fatal disease could produce.

Julia and her cronies were obsessed by every little change in Joshua's behaviour, and the only lapses in silence came from them asking questions to either Saunders or his patient.

How are you feeling?

Is it working?

How is he doing?

Has he been cured yet?

How long will it take?

In truth, Saunders didn't know exactly how long it would be before the cure took its full effect. This was the very first human trial and it was impossible to predict exactly how the body would react. So far, the signs were extremely positive.

Within a few hours Joshua's breathing slowed, and his demeanour began to change slightly. It was as if he could already tell that his body was changing for the better, and that was putting him at ease. Perhaps the cure was alleviating some of the stress and rage put on the brain by the infection. Whatever the case, something was changing within him.

After day one, Joshua's ticks had considerably lessened. The snaps of his teeth, and muscle jerks were becoming rarer by the hour, as he regained some basic control over his body.

The latest revelation had been Joshua's eyes.

"What? What's happening?" he demanded to know.

Julia didn't reply. She just kept staring into the whites of his eyes, as if she could see the gradual change. The imperative word here was whites. Joshua's eyes were white again, sure they had a reddish-pink tinge to them, but they were clearing for sure. It was as if a thick red dye had been cast into each socket, and the colour was finally dissipating and diluting back into its natural colour.

With every passing hour Joshua looked and acted more human... more normal. And with every visible change in his appearance and behaviour, Julia and her crew grew more and more excited. There was little doubt in their minds over the legitimacy of Saunders' cure now. After all, the proof was happening right before their eyes. Suddenly they didn't only have a taste for flesh, but a yearning hunger to return to their normal state. These lot were still sound enough of mind to desire that.

"Go and fetch something from the slaughter house," Julia ordered.

Joshua's symptoms had faded dramatically, and after 72 long hours, Julia was ready to try one last test before she stamped her approval on the cure.

Before long one of her cronies returned, as instructed, carrying something from the slaughter house. Saunders stumbled backwards, bumping into the back wall and doing everything in his power not to throw up everywhere. The Brotherhood member was carrying an entire human arm, hacked away from the shoulder by a cleaver of some kind no doubt.

Saunders wasn't sure what sickened him most. Seeing an arm detached from a human body, watching a man carry it normally as if it were a chicken leg, or the reaction to the severed limb by the rest of the room.

As soon as it was in sight, the Brotherhood soldiers sat up a little straighter and leant in a little closer. The gaps between teeth clicks halved, and the drool on show could practically fill a swimming pool. Saunders could tell that it had taken every single fibre of willpower from the man carrying it to stop himself devouring the feast on his way back up to the lab. The prospect of a cure just about outweighed a tasty meal, as Saunders expected.

Julia snatched the arm away from him, clutching it by the very end of the exposed bone. At first, she waved it in the general direction of Joshua, but he only seemed repulsed by the unsightly offering. He didn't quite have the same reaction as Saunders, but he clearly wasn't taken by the option of food.

Julia then wafted the arm closer, stopping only when the thickest part of the meat sat right underneath Joshua's flaring nostrils. His hands clenched around the arms of the chair once more, and he managed to withstand it for a few seconds before spinning away and hurling up onto the lab floor.

Julia smiled.

"How much have you got?" she asked.

"Pardon?" Saunders replied after a few seconds, unsure if she was addressing him or not.

"The cure. How much have you got?" she repeated sternly.

Saunders went into his top draw and retrieved four more identical vials, "Just these. Enough for you all. I haven't had time to make up any more yet. If you would just give me some time, I can provide enough f-"

Julia cut him off, "Those four will be enough."

"What about the others?"

"They will get their chance once we work out exactly what to do with this new... discovery," Julia clarified.

Just as Saunders had feared, she was already using the cure as a power chip to cement her place at the top of the food chain.

After a few minutes, Saunders had the four of them lined up across the width of the room in the chairs, all with their arms cleaned and extended, readily awaiting their respective jabs. One by one, he worked his way down the line, obviously starting with Julia herself. She wouldn't have it any other way.

For the first time, Saunders started to feel bad. Was this really the right way to do things? Had he just made a terrible mistake?

Either way, it was too late now, the serum was already beginning to flow through their veins, meanwhile Joshua was looking better than ever.

"What do we do now?" one of the men asked.

"We wait," Julia instructed.

"Wait for what? We know this thing works, why aren't we rolling it out to the masses of people down there? I've got friends here, you know?"

"Perhaps..." Julia suggested eerily. "You should enjoy these precious moments of redemption while you can. The others will come later."

"I think we should be-"

The man stopped speaking.

"Well don't mince your words. Come out with it. Speak your mind," Julia dared.

Suddenly his eyes flashed wide with horror and he began clutching his chest. His body began to spasm as it sunk down the chair and slumped onto the sick-covered floor.

"What the fuck?!" Julia growled.

"What's happening?" another man cried as he fell to his knees.

Blood began to seep from the eyes of the first man, and his body was jerking so rapidly and violently that it almost looked as if it was locked in a constant state of vibration. After a few more seconds, he flew into the air one last time before crashing down to earth with a loud and lifeless thud.

Bodies fell from chairs one by one, but Saunders' eyes were fixed firmly on Julia. She had long since worked out exactly what was happening, but the searing, burning pain in her veins was too much to fight. She couldn't bring herself to form any kind of audible words, restricted to a series of rage-filled grunts and cries.

With her last speck of life, she lunged desperately at Saunders who grabbed her by the scruff of her t-shirt and held her up like a rag doll. He stared deeply and intently into her eyes, his own overflowing with anger, pain and remorse, before he plunged the scalpel into her throat. For her final seconds, Julia spluttered and choked on her own blood before Saunders threw her to the ground.

He wanted the last thing for her to see to be him, driving a blade into her flesh just as she had done to him.

Wasting no time, Saunders swiftly knelt down and retrieved Julia's pistol from her waistband.

"What-" was all Joshua managed to blabber before a bullet carved through his skull.

Saunders didn't know what kind of man he was now that he was cured, but he did know Joshua was here through choice. He had helped torture Saunders through choice, infection or no infection. Letting him live would be to risk the safety of the cure, the real cure and the future of the human race.

If one more guilty man had to die to saved thousands of innocents, then so be it. Saunders wouldn't lose a wink of sleep over those numbers.

He hurriedly scooped up his research and a few spare vials of the real serum before heading out the lab.

It had been his prison for so long. He had even chosen to stay behind. A jail cell through force, choice and necessity, but it was time to break free.

Saunders paused in the doorway for the briefest of seconds, turning back to retrieve one last item from his desk.

He then fled the lab, knowing full well that the Brotherhood would be close behind once they stumbled across his gruesome handywork.

Looking down at the map in his hands, he just prayed he could reach the safe haven before they reached him.